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The Packaged House System of Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius

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The Packaged House System of Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius ­­AN AMERICAN WARTIME DREAM: THE PACKAGED HOUSE SYSTEM OF KONRAD WACHSMANN AND WALTER GROPIUS ALICIA IMPERIALE Temple University INTRODUCTION Wachsmann did not have a preconception of the perfect or final house—it remained an open system of 10 types of 40” x 120” The “Packaged House” is an extraordinary example of a prefabricated panels on a 40” module. This paper explores the relationship modular construction system designed by Konrad Wachsmann between System Theory that was developed during World War II and Walter Gropius, German emigres who came to the United and the “Packaged House” as an architectural Building System. States during World War II. Its lyricism inspired László Moholy- Nagy to include a photograph of the prefabricated parts packaged Wachsmann spent years developing the project and slowed down for delivery in his groundbreaking book Art and Vision of 1946. the design development and fabrication phases of the project as The “Packaged House” project is best known for its conceptual he sought to perfect the system: mundane concerns for fabrication richness, but was never fully executed nor a commercial success. repeatedly threatened to undermine the universality of the SYSTEM which was of utmost concern for him. The title of the book, The Dream of the Factory-Made House: Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius, is telling in that the “Packaged House” remained a dream in that it never did in fact go into production. This is a shame, as the system was an incredible achievement that deserves attention today. SYSTEM THEORY AND BUILDING SYSTEMS The confluence of system theory and the production of architectural building systems in the U.S. are related through the adaptation of pre-World War II techniques and knowledge that were transformed during the war and in the immediate postwar period. After dis- cussing the theoretical implications of system theory, this paper explores The “Packaged House” by Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius, a building system developed during the war. This building system illustrates the unique manner in which systems theory as a concept that linked vastly different fields would be explored in the field of architecture. Prefabricated, quickly deployable building systems were necessary during the war to house troops and strategic equipment. Prefabri- cated building systems were also needed to house large numbers of migrant workers adjacent to the factories producing aircraft, equip- ment, and weapons. Even during the war, there was the notion of 194X, or the unknown, but eventual end year of the war, in which the stepped-up wartime factory could be retooled to produce low- cost prefabricated housing for returning veterans and their families. Advancements made in technology and industrial fabrication during Figure 1. The Packaged House System in László Moholy-Nagy, Art and the war share a symbiotic relationship with a systems approach Vision, 1946. in architecture. Architectural building systems provide a concrete manifestation of the conceptual framework of system theory. 39 - 2012 ACSA Fall Conference HISTORY I System theory was developed in tandem in the biological and manner of an open, evolving system, whether natural, physical, or physical sciences, challenging the previous held conceptions about social. A key feature of Bertalanffy’s theory was that it would be organization. According to the laws of thermodynamics, a physical applicable (as Wiener had thought of cybernetics) to any kind of experiment is a “closed” system, in which a finite set of elements subject—exhibiting the quality of isomorphism. Bertalanffy’s text are in interaction and will tend towards a condition of “entropy” or “The Theory of Open Systems in Physics and Biology,” seeks to loss of information as the system advances towards equilibrium. clarify the distinction between physical models and the organism: In contrast, argued through a “system” approach, organic and non-organic phenomena are considered as “open” systems– with The only goal of science appeared to be analytical, i.e., the splitting up interactions back to and from the environment.1 of reality into ever smaller units and the isolation of individual causal trains. Thus, physical reality was split up into mass points or atoms, the living organism into cells, behavior into reflexes, perception into A system may be any kind of entity, physical or theoretical, that is punctual sensations, etc…. composed of interrelated parts. There are common characteristics that systems share. There is a structure to how the component parts We may state as characteristic of modern science that this scheme are arranged and a function or functions that each part performs of isolable units acting in one-way causality has proved to be within the larger environment of the system. Input is taken in from insufficient. Hence the appearance, in all fields of science, of notions the environment and follows a process or set of procedures to like wholeness, holistic, organismic, gestalt, etc., which all signify that, in the last resort, we must think in terms of systems of elements produce an output. The output then acts to feedback information in mutual interaction.”4 into the system from outside the system and acts to influence 2 changes in the system. Bertalanffy’s phrase, “systems of elements in mutual interaction,” in keeping with both Wiener’s and Bertalanffy’s belief in system The publication in 1948 of Norbert Wiener’s Cybernetics: or Control theory being applicable to diverse fields as an isomorphic leap and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, following is demonstrated in the design of The “Packaged House.” While his 1943 Behavior, Purpose and Teleology with Julian Bigelow this direct correlation cannot be documented we may view the and Arturo Rosenblueth, was grounded in his involvement in and “Packaged House” through this lens. exposure to the development of mechanical control systems such as servomechanisms earlier in his career, and artillery targeting THE PACKAGED HOUSE: BACKGROUND systems during World War II. A major challenge for the Allies was the incapacity of antiaircraft guns to make their target on Nazi aircraft Originally apprenticed as a cabinetmaker, Konrad Wachsmann studied during bombing raids. The aircraft had gained maneuverability at the Arts-and-Crafts schools of Berlin and Dresden and at the Berlin and speed since World War I, and a new approach was desperately Academy of Arts (under the Expressionist architect Hans Poelzig). He needed to predict how far ahead of the aircraft to aim the weapon. worked for the timber building company Christof and Unmäck, where The weapons were fitted with “gun directors,” a kind of analog he was designer for wood prefabricated houses. In 1929 he persuaded computer which would calculate the plane’s future position, and Albert Einstein to use the Christof and Unmäck system for the house “servomechanisms,” which would control the guns based on the offered to Einstein by the city of Berlin. Wachsmann was held in an 3 “gun director’s” output signals. internment camp in France and on May 16, 1941, his fortieth birthday in Marseille, he received a visa to go to the U.S. He arrived in New York Trajectory tables were created which calculated the variables of the City by boat and Gropius wired money for him to get to Boston, where gun caliber, size of the shell, and type of fuse. These tables were they collaborated for several months on various projects including a calculated by hand by mathematicians, who were known as “com- recreation center in Key West, when that work was abruptly stopped puters.” Wiener’s wartime work in ballistics would lead him to de- by the attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.5 Wachsmann velop the theory of cybernetics and he would by 1948 discuss its relates those days and the impact the attack would have on The “Pack- application in diverse fields: from the prediction of flight paths, to aged House” system in his autobiography TIMEBRIDGE: computing machines, electrical networks, and neuromuscular behav- ior, among others. Whether mechanical or biological, the cybernetic The next day Roosevelt declared war on Japan and within a few days system depends on feedback, which requires the communication of Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. information within the system. The theme of self-organization and feedback mechanisms in the control of an organism or machine are “This ends everything,” Gropius said. clear similarities in cybernetics and system theory and demonstrate “No,” I answered, “this will be the beginning. Now people will come striking contrast to the received notions of science up until that point. to their senses. They will be forced to be rational.”6 Concurrent to Wiener’s work in cybernetics, biologist Ludwig von Wachsmann continues, Bertalanffy had organized a group of thinkers around his notion of a General System Theory. This theory sought to develop a unified “Walter Gropius was quite desperate, but I cannot explain why I science of principles that could be applied in analysis of any sensed that now the great opportunity had arrived. That evening on OFFSITE - Philadelphia - 40 AN AMERICAN WARTIME DREAM December 7, returning home, I told Gropius for the first time that One could easily say that the “Packaged House” system was in fact I had developed during time in the internment camp in France a a closed system, in that there are a finite number of elements that universal system of industrialized building components, of course in the metric system. I had 13 small ink drawings with me of that project can be manipulated within the system. It is true that the Packaged as well as 12 sketches of the tubular steel structure system which House would certainly be considered a closed system from this point I began to develop in Grenoble and continued “aux Cambreniers”. of view.
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